Halo: Firefight
by big cheddars
Summary: a one-off that I wrote, I think it's quite good, and it's my biggest work to date. It's pretty long for one chapter, but oh well, it's not worth it splitting it into two.


**Firefight-a marine fanfic set on the map outpost**

authors note-a Sangheili unit is a general term used for time/distance, one unit(in distance) is a kilometre, one unit(in time) is one 24 hour day (but in at least one time I refer to it as one minute=one unit), as far as I know, I'm not too sure on how Sangheilian time works, so don't blame me if I mess the time references up, like the one you see in the first paragraph. (please note that when I am in the human point of view I use human time, and human nicknames for elites)

Karash 'Heramee, major, watched as his phantom slowly flew towards the humans position. He was standing on the side platform of the dropship, waiting with his two plasma rifles strapped to holsters on his leg and chest. He glanced back inside, several grunts were busying themselves checking weapons and ammo in the main part of the phantom, "you, grunt" he gestured to a grunt, also of major rank, to come stand next to him, 'Heramee was leading this strike team against the dug-in humans, and this grunt, Wawat, he remembered he was called, was his immediate subordinate, "Wawat, are your troops ready for deployment, the humans are dug in well, and I want this to be as quick as possible."

"yes excellency," the grunt replied, nervously, "Yiyip and Garar have the fuel rod guns as you ordered, excellency, and every Unggoy is ready to fight human to death." 'Heramee chuckled dryly, the grunts would be loyal and ready to fight to the death, but only as long as he or the minor Bakan 'Iparomee was alive, if the elites were killed then the underlings would run in fear, and the humans would cut them down. It was the solemnity in Wawat's voice which made 'Heramee laugh, and as the grunt frantically tried to think of what he had said that was amusing, the dropship's pilot's voice came over the inbuilt speakers. The brute pilot brought the dropship towards the human outpost as he spoke, carefully watching for any movements below, "Warriors, we are approaching our objective, I see no sign of the humans, but be assured, our reconnaissance units have spotted them here, may the will of the gods be with you brothers, activating gravity lift in five hundredths of a unit, 5, 4, 3 ,2 ,1, gravity lift activated, begin deployment, and may you clear out this infestation with haste." A large hole opened up in the bottom of the phantom, and bright blue light streamed to the surface about six or seven feet below, the first lance of Unggoy were already in the grav' lift, and descending. 'Heramee turned and, with one final look at the inside of the dropship, jumped from the side platform of the phantom.

"hey sarge, sarge, command says that were cut off from them by a ring of Covenant, we were the last ones out of the city and because of that we wont get an evac' pelican until ones free, which could take a while!" staff sergeant Frost turned, watching the radio carrying trooper until he had reached the position where he and the rest of his battered platoon were standing. He wore standard uniform with a customised helmet, an ODST one,which made him instantly recognisable to his soldiers. Beneath his combat fatigues and armour, it was possible to see bulging muscles all over his body, and what skin could be seen was covered in scars and faded burn marks. Frost was a man known even to the Covenant, and a man respected as near to a Spartan in fighting prowess in the UNSC. "Soldier, do you think I didn't already know all of that! Well I do, and what command is basically saying is that they'd like us to stay behind and hold up a Covenant battalion or two so they can get more citizens away from Reach, and the Covenant. Now I'm not a huge fan of the Covenant getting their hands on Reach, so I'm making it our responsibility to destroy as much Covenant materiel and personnel, you hearin' me so far boys, we're here so that any Covenant out on a nice stroll, doesn't live to tell on us. That's why I want a squad in that AA cannon there, corporal Heartridge, your squad I think, and then I want another squad in the other AA gun, the one we trashed earlier, sergeant Byrne, you'll command there, and finally I want a squad of dedicated sharpshooters and marksmen with me over there in that outcrop of rocks. You got that men, then get to it, and if I even think you're slackin', ill put you on the biggest fizzer you'll ever get, now get to troopers!" The troopers jumped to attention, then ran off to their squad leaders and waited to receive orders on where to station themselves and their weapons. Frost heard corporal Heartridge yelling for several men to place sandbags in the area they were defending, and pretty soon sergeant Byrne was shouting for several men to place barbed wire around their position. Frost nodded to himself, gazing out over the cliff that this small outpost occupied, deep down, the rousing speech he had given his marines was all for show, he knew that the Covenant would not let them leave their controlled land alive, and any pelican would be shot down as soon as it entered Covenant airspace, unless it had a very heavy escort, and Frost doubted that there were any hornets or falcons to spare for escort duties. Reach was lost, and his troopers were just one band in a number measuring thousands who would be left behind to fend for themselves against Covenant troops. Even if anyone did survive the assaults the Covenant would launch against them, when the planet was glassed, as the Covenant would do once they had exhausted their killing lust, anyone left on the planet would be incinerated, and Reach would join the long list of planets that had been utterly destroyed in the Covenants supposedly holy genocide of the human race. Frost sighed, forced his worries deep down into the depths of his brain, and concentrated on surviving what he knew would come.

Karash hit the ground hard, rolled and then straightened up. Cautiously, he unstrapped the rifles from his back and looked around him, he was in a slight depression in the land, surrounded by several large boulders, and he could see no sign of humans. Four Unggoy also jumped out of the phantom, including Wawat. 'Heramee beckoned to the grunt, and the squat alien waddled over to his position behind a large boulder, which offered a surprisingly good view of the surrounding land, "Wawat," he whispered, "do you see that

building, flanked by the two Tyrant class AA guns?"

The grunt nodded, "yes excellency, you want I could send a team of brethren to investigate it for you?" By this time, the phantom had discharged its complement of troops and 'Heramee heard the brute pilot say a final farewell to the Covenant troops milling around in the depression. 'Heramee looked over his troops, apart from his two lances of Unggoy, eight soldiers in all, he had the minor Bakan 'Iparomee, who was leading a lance composed of two jackals with energy gauntlets and two of their bigger cousins, the skirmishers, these beasts carried needle rifles in their capable hands, and 'Heramee knew that they could use them with proficiency. Bakan looked towards, him, obviously expecting orders, and 'Heramee beckoned him over. He turned to see Wawat still waiting for an answer, and quickly decided how to divide his troops up. "Wawat, take two minor Unggoy and another major, along with the two jackals, and start advancing slowly on the buildings, slowly! As you make your way there, take a route that provides cover along the entire way, so you have somewhere to go to if they have snipers, which is in their cowardly nature as humans, good luck warrior, I'll follow on with the rest of our troops when you have made it their, once you reach the buildings, search each one thoroughly, there may not be many humans but even if there is only one, we will hunt him like a rat until he is caught." Karash watched as Wawat selected his grunts, and began to trek towards the buildings. The buildings in question were about half a unit away, and provided an easily defendable position for the humans, no wonder they had come here to dig in, 'Heramee thought to himself, anyone trying to assault this position could be attacked from the front while flanking fire would be poured in on both sides. Bakan tapped Karash on the shoulder, breaking the major from his brief reverie, "you wanted to speak with me excellency?" Karash turned, and with a last look at the buildings, began to inform Bakan of his plan.

Frost gazed down the scope of his 99 AM sniper rifle, this was going to be a very easy kill, several of his men were poised to fire on the small party of grunts and jackals that were moving past their hidden position in the rocks, and Frost himself had a double headshot lined up with both the elites that seemed to be in command of this rabble. Frost grinned quietly to himself, this would take seconds, but his grin faded when he realised what would happen next, the Covenant would send more soldiers, in greater strength and rank each time until all the troopers were dead, then they would leave their bodies for the carnivorous jackals as they glassed the planet Reach. Well, that might happen, but Frost was focusing on the here and now, and his finger tightened slightly on the trigger, "on my mark ladies and gentlemen, 3, 2, 1, MARK!" his finger tightened, and the 14.5 mm round was ejected from the weapons barrel and flew towards his target. The red armoured elite talking to the blue armoured one behind it, if this shot worked, the bullet would go straight through the closest elite's spine and pierce the blue one's throat.

'Heramee was just conferring the last details of his battle plan when he felt something, a change in the air, a shimmer in the wind, and some sixth sense made him move left slightly, intending to spin and check the surrounding area. His ears picked up the noise of the sniper rifle being fired, but not before the round had already screamed overhead and flown straight through 'Iparomee's skull, throwing purple blood over every surface nearby. 'Heramee heard the elite's dying groan as several other shots rang out, several vapour trails made their way overhead in the blink of an eye. Both skirmishers, two grunts and Bakan now lay dead on the floor, their blood covering the ground and every remaining Covenant soldier. 'Heramee's startled brain whirred into action, and in a moment of utter cowardice and self preservation, he dropped his weapons and ran, zigzagging between rocks in an effort to allay any sniper rifles aimed at him, and sure enough, several seconds after he had begun running, a vapour trail seemed to appear out of nowhere onto the rock in front of him, chipping a sizeable piece off. He was ashamed at himself for doing it, but he whimpered as his fear overtook him, consumed him, and he would do anything to make this rain of death stop. Finally seeing an opening, he dived into a narrow cave on his right, one last shot ricocheting off the rocks outside. Panting, he rested on his haunches, he must have been running for a good half a unit, and his lung muscles ached with the strain. His random path through the rocks and scrub that formed this cliff plateau had completely confused him, and he had no idea where he was. In the distance he heard faint wails and screams, the last of his team, he thought bitterly. He had failed them, Bakan, Wawat, the jackals, they had looked to him as their leader and he had turned and ran like a coward, he was a failure to the Covenant, the prophets, the gods and even his own family, the 'Heram lineage would be forever tarnished with this. Ashamed even more by this realisation, Karash began to weep childishly, hse emotions brought on by shock and fear. Thinking of his family back home on Sanghelios, and the fate they would suffer for his actions. 'Heramee didn't know how long he sat there, weeping and convincing himself evermore that he had betrayed the Covenant and brought shame upon himself, but a sudden spark of hope rose in him when his helmet radio began to beep, and he intercepted a faint, very weak signal. ",,,,,,,,,,, idge of the crui...the _Truth and Re_..._liati_... vivors of stri...team 062 from bas...site 1...9 do y...res...nd, I...peat, thi...s the...idge... h..." 'Heramee's quick mind worked fast, yes, he had been knocked out from a shot, most of his team was down, but when he had awoken he was in a cave, far way from the objective, yes, this would work, his honour was intact since no-one else had survived, and all he needed to do was wait for reinforcements and ten take part in their assault. Grinning with all four of his mandibles, Karash keyed in the frequency the message was broadcasting on the battlenet and began to respond. Nervously, he told the bridge officer all that had happened up until the attack started, where he doctored events so they would fit a version where he came out with no other option other than to stay hidden. As he lied to the elite on the cruisers bridge, 'Heramee thought about the members of his team, cut down so quickly that most of them didn't know what was happening, for the last few, though, it must have been torture, seemingly surrounded, being shot at and slowly decimated, the grunts would have half died in fear, he suspected. He was broken from his thinking when the sharp tones of ship master Orna 'Fulsamee broke through his mind. "Major, stay there, we are sending two phantoms to assist you, fully loaded with regular troops and several spec-ops' units, be strong warrior, we know you did all you could."

"the humans will pay for what they have done, with their blood," Karash replied, the confidence returning to his voice, "Make sure they have several spare weapons excellency, I will be joining them in their assault on the human stronghold, and I will make them pay, I swear by the gods and the noble 'Heram lineage.

Sergeant Frost was worried, that red bastard had got away, and he wasn't going to send any men after it, but that left a loose asset on the board. Frost had repositioned his troops, the snipers were split into two groups, one in each AA gun, supported by squads of marines, the rest of the troopers were fortified in the middle building, with good eyesight on any approaching Covie's. And good angles. Frost expected the Covenant to retaliate, in force this time, not a bunch of grunts and jackals, maybe several elites and brutes if they were desperate enough. Sure enough, almost half an hour after they had destroyed the first wave, two phantoms appeared over the distant hills and began to fly towards the open ground in front of the buildings. There were several large, rectangular, metal containers scattered with several large boulders, and a knee deep pool of water occupied the space in front of the destroyed AA gun. Frost readied his sniper rifle, he was in the destroyed tower, which provided the best angles over the battlefield, and made a good stronghold to defend. His assault rifle was strapped to his back, but he hoped he didn't have to use it, that meant close quarters, where anything could happen. A sudden thought struck him, "Team, listen up, most of the Covie weaponry Is meant for short range, unless you see skirmishers, which are priority targets, the elites will try to get in close and pummel us with plasma, snipers, don't let them, okay boys, here we go, two dropships, gonna land their payload right in front of us, the fools."

Zhen 'Rarenee stood inside the main bay of the phantom, the side platforms were still closed, but the Covenant soldiers were going to deploy out of them instead of the gravity lift, which was deemed to slow and made the warriors too much of a target. Zhen agreed with that, and thought it was a well needed bit of common sense in the Covenant tactics, but he kept this traitorous thought to himself. The phantom Zhen was in carried twelve grunts of varying ranks, three of which were the elite spec-ops, clad in black armour and full face masks. The phantom also carried four elites of different ranks, Zhen, his major, and two spec-ops Sangheili, glaring fiercely at any other soldier from the other side of the phantom, they were going to deploy first, as the elite, and dared anyone to challenge them. Zhen checked his lance of grunts, they were going to be the last deployed, and the three minors bickered among themselves over some stupid Unggoy matter, Zhen turned away in disgust at their antics, and focused on checking his plasma rifle, the weapon was in pristine condition, just like the last time he had checked it. Suddenly, a huge crack echoed through the phantom, and Zhar stumbled as the vehicle shuddered, his major yelled towards the Jiralhannae pilot, "You fool, what trap has your ape-like hide led us into now." the brute pilot, obviously shaken, replied, seemingly ignoring the slander against his race, "Excellency, they have snipers, we have lost the turret, the other phantom has suffered the same, they are firing upon our hull, I dont think this aircraft can take a lot more of these rounds, you had best deploy now, opening side doors, good luck warriors." With that, the side platforms began to fold down, revealing several buildings crawling with humans, Zhen's major jumped out of the phantom as soon as there was sufficient room, the lead spec-ops elite doing the same on the other side. Several Unggoy followed, until Zhen pushed his way to the front and, without a thought, leapt from the phantom.

'Heramee watched as the phantoms flew in, depositing their troops at several different locations, he paid specific interest to the five spec-ops units that had jumped, almost in sequence, out of the first phantom, emerging from his hiding place in the cave, Karash watched as almost thirty Covenant soldiers were deployed to the fight, this force stood a chance of taking the humans out. Running towards the nearest elite, a minor, 'Heramee watched as the Covenant warriors spread out, taking over behind rocks and containers, and only firing back when a safe opportunity presented itself. Karash arrived at the site of his own teams drop point ,several tenths of a unit out from the buildings, among the blood and gore on the floor, he picked out the prone form of Bakan, sprawled in the dirt where he had fallen, crouching, 'Heramee said a quick prayer for his comrade, before picking up a plasma rifle lying loose on the ground, it must have been Bakan's, he thought, how fitting, that the humans would die from the weapon of the warrior they had killed.

Frost focused his scope on the skull of a grunt, a spec-ops, experienced they may be, but they still died just as easily. The little bastards head was poking up from a rock as he tried to bombard the marines with his plasma pistol. Frost fired, and the grunts head exploded in a burst of methane and blood, a nearby elite looked up at the shot, but had the presence of mind to duck just as another round nearly took his neck off. The Covenant might have thought that outnumbering usually works, but over half the grunt freaks had had their brains scattered already, and Frost heard a jubilant cry as another's life was cut short, but the shout of triumph turned into a scream of pain as the unlucky trooper caught a random plasma bolt in the shoulder, "Medic." someone yelled, and Frost began to reload his rifle, scanning for targets all the time, a clutch of grunts looked like they were preparing to rush the functioning AA gun, the one on the right, and as they steeped out from behind a rock, led by some crazy minor elite, Frost alerted his other sniper team to their presence and 14.5mm bullets caused several explosions of methane among the Covenant ranks, Frost watched as the elite, still charging, faltered when he realised that all his grunts had fallen, he spread his mandibles in a roar of defiance at the army troopers, clearly intending to charge even further, but Frost put a round through his chest cavity, just a another trooper caved in his skull, the blood ridden body of the minor flopped lifeless on the dirt, and a despairing wail rose from the grunts in the area. Two broke ranks and began to run around like headless chickens, Frost cautioned his men to not waste ammo, and took care of the two with his sidearm, the scope on his pistol proved very effective, cracking their methane tanks in several shots.

'Heramee picked out the highest ranking spec-ops elite, a veteran with many bullet marks on his armour, working his way over to the elite in a matter of minutes, 'Heramee confronted him about the assault, "excellency, this isn't working, we cannot even get near the humans and we have no long ranged weapons, any kills we make will be by pure luck." The elite gave 'Heramee a battle-weary look, "I know major, but we have no alternative, we must hold here, until the reinforcements arrive, I have already requested that they bring needle rifles, so we just need to keep the humans pinned."

The sun slowly set in the west, and the marines slowly whittled down the remaining Covenant soldiers, at the end, only the lead spec-ops, 'Heramee and several grunts remained, five healthy and three partially wounded and leaking methane. When Frost heard the roar of incoming dropship engines, his gut froze in fear for a brief second, this force would be stronger than both the previous ones and his marines had already taken casualties from the haphazard fire of the previous wave. Frost watched as two phantoms appeared over a distant hill, splitting up and heading towards both sides of the battlefield. Frost ordered several of his marines to neutralise the turrets on the phantoms, several shots were fired, and the dropship's only offensive weapons were destroyed. One phantom flew to a position in a dry stream bed, about three hundred metres from the buildings, and Frost watched as a stream of skirmishers armed with needle rifles jumped from one side of the ship, calling his snipers forward, he told them to shift their fire from the pinned down Covenant to the new arrivals, particularly the skirmishers. The other dropship manoeuvred to the intact AA gun, which was perched rather close to a cliff, with a path running away from the main entranceway. The phantom flew to this path, and Frost watched as the doors on both sides of the phantom opened. He aimed down his scope, waiting until the first glimpse of an alien. He was ideally positioned to snipe into the open phantom, being at a perpendicular angle to the open troop bay. An elite perched itself on the platform as the phantom lowered to optimal deployment height, Frost steadied himself, and fired, wasting no chances. The elite, a high ranking Zealot with an energy sword in his hand, recoiled as the sniper round impacted onto his armour, piercing it and cutting a hole through the elites shoulder. The now crippled Zealot fell off of the platform, his body smashing into a rock below, Frost heard the audible crunch of bones. As he readied himself for another shot, he called for the snipers in the other AA gun to focus on the phantom closest to them, and he warned them that more elites were likely. Another elite moved to the Zealots post in the phantom, and looked around anxiously as if wondering where the high ranking elite had gone. Frost's shot took that elite through the neck, the shot entering the phantom and ricocheting madly inside. The dead body slumped as it hung off the dropships ledge, blood oozing from the wound. Frost could see more Covenant, several grunts and another Zealot, inside the phantom, the major he had just shot must have been in charge of the grunt lance, he thought, and hastened to take out the other Zealot so that the grunts would be without leaders. His second to last shot pierced the elites arm, stunning him and making him crouch in surprise, Frost's last shot was aimed at his head, but he began to straighten up, and as a result, the round passed through his ribcage, kinetic energy disintegrating it and causing small explosions inside his chest cavity.

'Heramee watched in dismay as the Covenant troops that disembarked the phantoms were cut down with accurate sniper fire, there was however, some good news. A team of skirmishers, despite the best efforts of the hidden snipers, had made it to a cluster of rocks one tenth of a unit from the destroyed AA gun, and were firing into the humans ranks. The spec-ops elite, 'Garuree, tapped him on the shoulder, 'Heramee turned, and was confronted with the remainder of the second wave, formed up and ready to charge. Garuree grinned, "time to prove your devotion, major, we will advance on the middle building, between four and ten humans are inside, and the skirmishers will cover us." 'Heramee nodded, this was going to be fun. 'Heramee clutched the plasma rifle he had taken from Bakan's corpse. He would make the humans pay. Several of the grunts shied away from the look on Karash's face as he moved into position for their assault. The two elites would go first, with the grunts following after, if everything went well then the elites would make it to the building, and begin to clear out the humans, while a party of grunts would move to what had been identified as a side entrance over the comms. "ready warriors," 'Garuree whispered, "then let your kills be silent and swift, go."

'Heramee sprang out from behind the rock, levelling his plasma rifle as he began his charge across the open ground towards the building. As soon as he emerged from the cover of the rocks, assault rifle bullets began to spark on the ground around him, and he felt several impacts upon his armour as he ran. He aimed his plasma rifle, and began to fire in short bursts at the target building. The superheated plasma, thrown from the gun, began to melt the sandbags covering the buildings entrance. It was a solid, square lump of concrete and steel, with the bottom floor having a front entrance and two windows, and a set of stairs leading up the side of the building to the roof, which was a sizeable landing pad.

'Heramee had covered over half the distance to the buildings front entrance, when a sniper shot from one of the AA gun's upper platforms whizzed past his helmet, fearing further shots, 'Heramee sprang into a dive, followed by a forward roll that finished with him just several feet away from the building's doorway. As he leapt back onto his feet, he could see several humans behind the doorway barricade of sandbags, levelling assault weapons at him. Raising his own rifle, he fired, several plasma slugs puncturing the armour of the nearest human, making him scream and drop his weapon. Leaping forward and vaulting the sandbags, Karash continued firing, another few bolts sinking into the armour of another soldier, making him collapse in pain. Karash took stock of his surroundings in a brief moment. He was inside the building, but surrounded. Four troopers looked at him, all holding weapons, without a further thought 'Heramee launched into action, dropping to his haunches as the first armour piercing rounds whizzed towards him, he raised his weapon again and fired it in an arc across the room, spraying bolts of plasma towards anything that moved. Two troopers fell to plasma shots, and a third screamed as yet more plasma melted his chest, exposing the now burning, pink insides. The final human, realising that firing at the nimble elite was not going to work, instead charged. Minimising the distance between the two combatants and giving 'Heramee a chance for some close up payback. Karash grabbed a wildly swung assault rifle, wrenching it from its owners hands and throwing it out of the nearby window, dropping to his haunches, he intercepted the tackle from the human, watching its surprised look as he grabbed its shoulders, swung it and threw him against the wall.

The soldier felt several of his ribs crack as he hit the wall, sending jarring waves of pain through his body, gazing up at his enemy, he tried to summon enough energy to stand and fight once more, but found it impossible once the elite pinned him to the wall with one hand. The elite drew back his free right fist, clenching it tightly, the trooper watched in horror as a small blade of light sprang from the aliens wrist armour, covering the top of his hand. The elite bared his four mandibles, snarling at the trooper, and the doomed human muttered his last words as the fist was brought forward, smashing into his chest and impaling him.

Karash grinned as he withdrew the energy dagger, deactivating it as he dropped the pitiful humans corpse. Almost two minutes had elapsed since 'Heramee had emerged from the rocks, and the central building was now free of humans. A commotion behind him made him turn, and he watched in surprise as 'Garuree barrelled through the window frame in a tight ball, shots hitting the area where he had jumped from. He panted as he straightened up, looking Karash in the eye, the spec-ops elite grinned. The two shared a brief moment of respite, then refocussed on the mission.

A sudden clattering alerted 'Heramee, and he whirled around, rifle coming up, to find that the party of grunts they had sent to flank the humans were stumbling into the building. Karash gave the grunts a look of disgust, the wretches had the cheek to try and avoid fighting, well he would show them how cowards were treated, "Warriors, we have neutralised this building, but we must now take out the AA guns, which are infested with humans." The looks on the grunts' faces changed from feigned eagerness to horror at their task. 'Heramee continued, watching with amusement at the grunts' reaction, "We will split into two teams, with spec-ops minor 'Garuree leading one team, and myself leading the other, we will take half of your group each." 'Garuree listened as 'Heramee outlined his quick plan, efficiently and professionally. Both teams would tackle a different AA gun, the recently arrived Covenant reinforcements supporting them, the reinforcements had taken casualties and were in a bad position, so their usefulness would be limited.

Frost watched from the wrecked AA gun's second floor as the new reinforcements were slowly cut down by sniper fire, but it was not going all the marines' way, third squad had been killed when that lone elite charged the middle building. Frost was impressed with the alien's skill, but not any less inclined to kill him. Also, several jackal snipers from the latest wave of reinforcements had cut down three of his troopers before they could be neutralised. Almost half of Frost's force now lay dead, shot by snipers or blue and green plasma bolts, he silently grieved for them, and his thoughts turned to the three or four wounded in the two towers, theirs was an uncertain fate. Frost estimated he had thirteen healthy, fighting army troopers, and that number would slowly drop until they were all dead, corporal Heartridge was dead, presumably from the majors assault on the middle building. That bastard would be planning on how to take out the rest of the troopers he looked like that kind of sort, a thinker and an instinctive fighter. Casting his thoughts from what he thought the elite might be doing, Frost ordered the troopers to double their vigilance on the stairs in the gun, relaying the orders to the other squad over comms. While this was going on, Frost's remaining snipers and himself were slowly putting down the remaining Covenant, however, a quick force lead by a Zealot and a ultra grunt managed to dash across open ground to the middle building, losing the high ranking grunt in the process. When every Covenant soldier except the ones inside the captured building had been neutralised, Frost turned his attention to the aliens in there.

Karash watched in awe as the Zealot officer thought about his plan, which he had relayed to the higher ranking elite. Thankfully the Sangheili was a capable tactician, and he approved the plan, splitting the now bolstered force into two, as Karash had originally planned, the Zealot led one team against the wrecked gun, where the human leader was believed to be, from intel extracted from the human communications devices, and 'Heramee would lead the other team against the intact gun. Karash's team consisted of three minor grunts, a grunt heavy with a fuel rod cannon who would stay outside the gun and provide covering fire, a young and inexperienced minor elite, but a fast runner, and two jackals with point defence gauntlets and plasma pistols.

Karash checked his team before the Zealot gave the order to move out, they would get the job done, but he had doubts about how easy getting into the tower would be, if it was easy. After a countdown, Karash's team rushed from cover with the other team, the warriors splitting as they proceeded to their targets, several rounds threw up mounds of dirt, but the surprise and speed of the Covenant attack was such that no one in 'Heramee's team was hit. Rushing towards the door of the gun, 'Heramee fired his rifle, and the minor running alongside him did the same, their bolts splashed off the walls, some going through the doorway, and by their light Karash could see the shape of a human soldier, hiding in the shadow of the doorway. 'Heramee grinned evilly, and grasped a plasma grenade from his belt, signalling his team to take up position on either side of the open door, he activated the grenade and threw it into the doorway. The human yelped as the grenade stuck to his armour, and he screamed when he realised what it was. After the explosion had subsided, Karash motioned his team to move into the entrance, the jackals went first, gauntlets extended, and a barrage of fire met their shields, ducking aside from the entrance, Karash moved around the base of the gun listening as the sounds of a skirmish erupted inside the gun's frame, he eventually found what he was looking for, tyrant class guns had two entrances at the base level, going into a big room which held the gun's core. Karash moved inside the room, and, spotting several humans trading fire with the Covenant soldiers behind some crates, he began to sneak slowly up on the soldiers. When he was close enough, he announced his intent over the comms and the warriors obediently held their fire, the two humans looked at each other, exchanging confused expressions. Confusion turned to horror as 'Heramee jumped up behind them. Activating his energy dagger, he impaled a human in the small of the back whilst firing a lethal burst at the other from his rifle. The two troopers slumped, dead, over the crates, and Karash's team gave him admiring looks, 'Heramee knew their work was not done, however, and he motioned for the minor to lead the team up the ramp at one side of the room, leading to the second level, where the remaining humans would be. Moving up the ramp would be dangerous, as the humans could see anyone coming up, so Karash instructed the minor to use more speed than power, and to only focus on the humans when the team was clear of the ramp and the kill zone. The minor obligingly sprinted up the ramp, followed by the jackals and then the grunts, Karash fell in behind them, hoping the team was fast enough to catch the humans off guard.

Frost watched as the first two grunts filed up the ramp, turning in fear when the assault rifle bullets began flying at them. Next to come were several jackals, rushing up the ramp to form a perimeter at its head denying the troopers free shots at their comrades below. Frost could see the hulking forms of elites behind the jackals, and he instructed his men to prepare for CQB, the troopers obligingly switched to assault rifles and loosened combat knives in their sheaths. Frost watched as a black armoured spe-ops elite led a clutch of grunts up the stairs, sweeping the jackals with them, his men engaged, shooting back as the Covenant rushed their barricades. Frost brought up his assault rifle, firing point blank at a grunt running at him. The troopers moved back allowing the Covenant to scramble over their barricade, then they charged throwing themselves towards the aliens. Chaos ensued, one private was struck down from plasma shots, but two grunts fell to clubbing, the elite barrelled forwards, towards Frost. The sergeant willingly drew the beast out, distracting him from his remaining soldiers, who were stabbed and shot repeatedly by Frost's remaining troopers.

'Garuree lunged forwards, trying to club the well built human with his weapon, but the nimble man dodged, and 'Garuree felt a hard pain in his lower back as the human sergeant thwacked his weapon into the elites flesh. 'Garuree turned and dived at the sergeant, bringing him down with a full body tackle that he thought would throw the battle in his favour.

Frost cursed as the elite threw itself on top of him, and pulling out his pistol began to hit the elite repeatedly on the head with it. The stunned alien slid off of Frost, and the sergeant counter attacked, cocking his pistol, he turned the elite over and aimed the M6G as its face. At the last moment a hand with four digits on it reached up and punched him in the chest, disrupting his aim, Frost gasped and scrambled off his adversary, aiming at the elite's bared chest as the alien struggled to its feet. Frost fired, and the armour piercing rounds impacted on the elite's shields, slowing him but not stopping him as he began a last charge at Frost, activating his wrist mounted energy dagger. Frost deliberately fell backwards, throwing the elite over him and firing his sidearm into the aliens briefly unprotected face as he jumped overhead. The squid faced freak's mandibles exploded, and blood and body matter sprayed Frost as he pulled out his combat knife and finished his stricken enemy off.

Just as he was pulling his knife from the dead flesh, a scream alerted him and he looked up to see a Zealot class elite wielding an energy sword bearing down on his three remaining troopers, who had finished off the last of the Covenant force. He quickly aimed and fired, pistol rounds impacting on the elite's armour and causing the alien to turn, its attention divided for a brief second, it appeared indecisive, and that mistake cost it its life. A burst of assault rifle fire came from the marines as Frost lunged at the alien, his combat knife ready, the firing stopped when the elite's shield dissipated, leaving the alien confused and injured. Frost took advantage of this and dived at the elite's legs, bringing him down in a full body tackle, he scramble up and plunged his knife into the bottom of the elite's neck, piercing his windpipe and condemning him to a painful death as he asphyxiated from lack of air.

Frost straightened up, his uniform now covered in gore from both elites, he had lost his helmet, and his scarred skin was all to visible in the light of the evening sun. A sudden burst of static on private Gomez's field radio, their only long range link to command, caught his attention. He whipped the receiver up and responded immediately to the call coming out, "Bravo oh niner, repeat, bravo oh niner, second platoon, are you still there." the voice was harsh and grating, almost emotionless, but Frost knew the man on the other end, and knew that he did actually have feelings, which his voice implied he didn't. "roger that command this is bravo oh niner, we are alive and well, but we have taken heavy causalties and probably wont be around for much longer to chat."

"Roger that bravo oh niner, two falcons have been dispatched to your position, expect them in a matter of minutes. And good luck staff sergeant, ill see you on the other side." Frost chuckled dryly, "Not all of us captain, we have wounded but our complement as of now is not too many for the falcons, third squad are down, and second squad are currently fighting a Covenant force in front of my eyes, but I regret to say they are nearly beaten. We have three wounded, and they will need immediate medial assistance when we are extracted." Frost's three troopers were attempting to provide support for the remains of second squad, but Frost knew it was hopeless, they were outnumbered and the screams and shouts on the comms, distressing as they were, pointed to an inevitable end. Frost sighed and turned to his remaining men, "boy's, get the wounded in position for easy extraction, Dawson, watch for the Covies in that gun over there, tell me when they come out. Lennox, move the wounded to the edge of the platform and tell me when you spot the falcons, be ready to move fast people, when the freaks see we're being extracted they ain't gonna be happy." Frost moved around, taking the dog tags off of his dead troopers and spending several moments remembering them. He was in a grim mood now, and eyed the other AA gun with eyes filled with hate, he wanted to kill the Covies that were responsible for the dead bodies in front of him and the blood soaked tags in his hand. Slowly his rage faded, and he was left staring daggers at the gun in front of him, but the anger for the loss of his men was replaced by the feeling of guilt and dread, guilt that he hadn't been able to save them and dread at the Covenant, he was scared. The events of the last few hours had slowly penetrated his rock hard exterior and shaken him, he was no longer a rock hard army sergeant, more of a frightened trooper. His mind spiralled these negative thoughts out of proportion, and he began to feel the first effects of shellshock, for he was thinking too much, soldiers didn't think, they acted, and would do anything to avoid stopping and thinking.

Private Gomez heard his radio cackle into life, the panicked voice of a falcon pilot blaring away, "bravo oh niner, this is extract 1, I'm under heavy fire from a pair of banshees and I'm not sure how much this bird can take, be ready with long range weapons to cover me, I'm currently seven hundred metres out and moving fast on your position." Gomez grasped the mike from the radio set, hollering his response at the female pilot, "roger that extract 1, were, currently ready to be extracted, command said there were going to be two falcons, can you confirm this."

"Negative bravo oh niner, not enough falcons were spare so they only sent me, you've got orders to leave your wounded there, I've only got five seats, and boys, I need you on the guns when I get there, otherwise we're not gonna make it very far."

"roger that extract 1, we'll be ready, out." Gomez turned, a look of despair on his face, sarge was standing on the edge of the platform, gazing the hell out of the gun emplacement, Gomez walked up to him and tapped him on the shoulder. "sarge, the extraction team is just one falcon, and she hasn't got enough room for the wounded, sarge, can you hear me sarge."

Frost came abruptly back to life as he heard Gomez talking to him, his thoughts of despair were banished as he refocussed on the here and now, and Gomez's info about the wounded shocked him into action, "Son, you know our rule, no one gets left behind, either we all go, or I stay and you get the wounded away from here. Tell the pilot that, and I don't give a damn about the answer, cause I'm not dying today at the hands of a few mangy grunts, it'll take a lot more to bring me down than them, so I want my last stand to be in a different place to this, and I also want to get my men out of here, so that falcon pilot can go screw herself, after we're back at base, obviously." Gomez nodded, and relayed the message, the pilot's answer was one of regret, but she assented, and Gomez turned to inform Frost about the banshees following the falcon, "don't worry about them private, get on one of the guns of the falcon as it comes down, and take one banshee, and I'll take the other with my rifle." Gomez nodded, and with Dawson and Lennox Frost formed his meagre squad up, ready to get the wounded on the falcon and get the hell out of there.

Flight lieutenant Eve Reynolds wrenched at the controls of her falcon, narrowly dodging a huge bolt of green radioactive plasma fired from one of the banshees, she was trapped, the two enemy fighters had followed her since she left the protective cordoning of Gamma Base, and she didn't know how much longer she could evade their fire, "those boys better have some weapons capable of bringing down these bastards, or their ride was going up in flames, or down, as the case may be." she thought to herself as she crested the final rise and spotted the small outpost where the troopers were. As she flew towards it, a flare appeared in the sky above one gun, and she began to head towards the rear platform, turning her vehicle sideways to anticipate the troopers arrival. As she landed with a rough bump on the platform, two troopers immediately began piling the bodies of wounded men into the back of the falcon, taking up the bench directly behind her cockpit seat. Their task completed, one marine moved another wounded man onto the remaining bench at the back of the vehicle, sitting him at the edge, leaving enough space for two more occupants.

Frost hefted his sniper rifle, aiming at the banshee forming for a strafing run on their position, he could hear the pilot on his comms, screaming that they had to go, Gomez was manning one door gun, with Dawson on the other gun, facing out across the cliff.

Focussing on the banshee, Frost steadied his aim, and fired. The 14.5mm anti materiel round sped through the air, puncturing the banshee's forward plate and making the craft begin a long spin towards the surface. Frost turned and jumped onto the side platform of the falcon, "Green light lady, get us the hell out of here, there's Covies in that other gun, so stay clear." Frost grabbed onto one of the overhead handles as the falcons VTOL engines lifted it off the platform, with everyone on board.

'Heramee roared in anger as the human aircraft flew away from the phantom, a burst of machine gun fire from the door gun reducing the remaining banshee to a chunk of trashed, purple metal, the wreckage fell from the sky, emitting an eerily graceful noise until it crashed into the battle scarred ground. 'Heramee stood on the rear platform of the AA gun, wishing he knew how to operate it so he could shoot the human filth out of the sky. He turned, fixing the surviving Unggoy with a piercing glare, willing them to say anything to provoke him. He had been close to killing the humans, and the sting he had felt when his own team had been ambushed was still strong in his mind. Snarling in disgust, 'Heramee turned and called up his tactical display, typing in his radio frequency for the _Truth and Reconciliation_ on his wrist pad.

Frost breathed a sigh of relief as he glimpsed enclosed shape of Gamma base, he had made it out alive, with as many of his men as he could, and he was proud of that. What the Covenant would do next on Reach was a mystery, but at least Frost was still there and fighting.


End file.
